Elephant Plains: Elephants in the Mist

Today was a gloomy, moody, misty and at times a drizzly day, meaning that we had yet another chance for different, impactful photography.

We seemed to find elephants everywhere, with herds appearing out of the gloomy, misty conditions, and then disappearing again as if by magic.

We were photographing a herd of buffalo when we heard lions calling from the south and decided to investigate that area. We checked the southern perimeter of the reserve and realised that the lions were not far away, but across the border and out of reach for us.

We returned to the same area this afternoon and found that we could still hear the lions, this time somewhat closer. We deduced that they are gradually moving closer to the reserve and hopefully they will cross the border and be here by tomorrow.

While we were checking on the whereabouts of the lions, we heard some very agitated baboon calls and quickly followed those sounds which brought us to some very fresh leopard tracks. We excitedly followed the tracks and before long we caught up with one of the male leopards in the area, named Lamula.

We spent the remainder of our time with the handsome leopard as he strolled around, then lay down, lifting his head from time to time, and then went for another long ramble.

As he walked we pulled ahead of him to get spotlit images of him walking toward us.

Then backlit images as another vehicle provided back lighting for us, then some rim lighting and close up portraits. All in all, a superb series to add to our growing collection.

Back at the Lodge this evening we can still hear the lions calling. The sounds are getting closer, meaning that we will head directly to check the southern area in the morning …